Welcome To Sarajevo

I hope that I never have to experience the horror of war!

Welcome To Sarajevo is a documentary style film based on the siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia in 1992. Over 200,000 civilians died during the Bosnian war!

British film maker Michael Winterbottom (Jude) travelled to Sarajevo with his cast and crew only a few days after the fighting ceased there in 1996 to film, which explains what otherwise would have been absolutely extraordinary sets.

The smoke was still rising from the ruins of what previously had been the beautiful Winter Olympic town.

As well, actual wartime footage was added to tell a story which can safely be said to not glorify war, a claim that is rare for cinema!

The journalists covering the conflict retreat to a dimly lit hotel basement to swap stories and leads but are becoming increasingly annoyed when their networks fail to air their dispatches in favour of frivolous stories at home.

The plight of Sarajevo is being ignored even by the U.N.. Nobody seems to care as the carnage goes on.

One of the journos, Henderson played by Stephen Dillane becomes increasingly emotionally involved with the fate of the children in an orphanage.

These children are in dire danger either from bullets or starvation. An opportunity comes for him to save one of the children and he takes the chance.

What follows is a fraught journey as the group attempt to leave the country. But what is overwhelming in Welcome To Sarajevo is the heartlessness of war; the dehumanising of the weak and vulnerable and the suddenness with which death can strike.

The disruption of normal life is absolute for many involved in the conflict in Welcome To Sarajevo, the damage to the human psyche is horrendous.

Welcome To Sarajevo isn't light entertainment but it is enlightening. Civil war is one activity I hope we never have to encounter in our country.